Mechanical characterization of lightweight polymer mortar modified with cork granulates

The mechanical behaviour of a cork modified polymer mortar was investigated. Two series of mortar formulations were studied, with different resin/sand (i.e., binder/fine aggregate) weight ratios. In each series, cork ranged from 0% to 45% of the total aggregate volume. Flexural and compressive tests were performed at room temperature and load vs. displacement curves were plotted up to failure. In the study, both the influence of the cork volume fraction and the resin/sand weight ratio were considered relative to the mechanical behaviour of the cork-modified polymer mortars. A linear decrease in properties was observed as function of cork volume content. When specific properties were considered, this tendency was kept. However, the lower density of the cork-modified mortars lead to a smoother loss in specific properties. The modified mortar properties seem to follow a rule of mixtures in terms of their components. The overall results anticipate interesting expectations in terms of lighter modified polymer concretes.